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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Gingrich Regains Command Among Gop Good Buddies

Los Angeles Times

She’d been handpicked by Speaker Newt Gingrich just one week before to move up in the leadership, and now Rep. Jennifer Dunn of Washington was heading into the Capitol for her first big job: presiding over an unprecedented meeting of her party to air acts of betrayal, perfidy and coupplotting against her patron.

She’d spent much of the day preparing in minute detail for this dubious debut. She was worried that the party could come unglued in the next three hours. She was not alone.

After weeks of palace intrigue that culminated in a failed effort to dump Gingrich earlier this month, many House Republicans expected war as they headed into Wednesday night’s session.

Three hours later, peace had broken out - or at least a truce. Republicans wept, Republicans laughed. Wayward leaders repented, rebels apologized. And Gingrich emerged stronger than he had been for months.

It was a remarkable crossroads for the party, which for months had been riven by factional strife.

And it was an even more remarkable watershed for Gingrich, who had been in free fall from the vertiginous heights of power and popularity he enjoyed after he masterminded the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress. He had been under sniper fire for months by a small group of conservative malcontents and surrounded by lieutenants who were clearly tantalized by the prospect of succeeding him.

Now, suddenly, Gingrich’s fall has been arrested, even if his ascent to old heights is unlikely. His rivals have been humiliated.

Gingrich opened the meeting with a biblical exhortation to forgiveness: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” Then, one by one, the implicated leaders - House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas and Bill Paxon of New York - rose to the podium.

Clearly shaken, DeLay dropped the biggest bombshell of the session: He acknowledged that he had told the conservative dissidents that he would support an effort to oust Gingrich.

Armey acknowledged that he had joined the other leaders in “what-if scenarios” of possible successors. Paxon drew the first standing ovation with an emotional plea to his colleagues to let his be the last head to roll. He moved some people to tears when he said, “Enough is enough.”